“The kids asked if we wanted a big party, but we said no,” said Mr. Amendolare.

He noted some family members live in Canada and in California and it would have been difficult for them to come.

Instead the Amendolares went out to eat and then welcomed visitors.

“Company started coming and the phone rang about 150 times,” Alfred Amendolare said.

The question of how they have stayed married for 70 years was bound to come up.

“My way of looking at it is you’ve got to have respect for one another,” said Mr. Amendolare, adding the next generation will follow this example. “Sometimes we’ve had heated discussions,” he said. “Who doesn’t? But we try to get along.”

They’ve been getting along for quite some time.

“We went to school together,” said Mrs. Amendolare.

“She used to sit behind me,” her husband recalled. One day after the teacher had called for absolute quiet and everyone else was silent, he said, “I turned around and said to her, ‘Where are you going tonight?’”

The Amendolares were married April 17, 1943, in St. Mary’s Church in Frankfort.

Mr. Amendolare worked for the Thruway, retiring 33 years ago, while his wife was the head cook at the high school for 18 years.

They have three daughters and a son, 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Mr. Amendolare recalls how he used to take care of the grandchildren while his wife and daughter played Boggle.

“I’d tell them, ‘I love you with all my heart and then some,’” he said. The grandchildren remember it too.

The Amendolares enjoy having visitors and family members enjoy visiting them.

“My niece says when you visit Uncle Al and Aunt Carolyn you never want to go home,” said Mr. Amendolare.

amily members also say that these visits are a good way to gain weight.